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When his mate didn’t move, he forced himself to get out and grab the bags from the back seat. He opened the passenger door; the omega sat stubbornly, not looking at Royce. With a defeated sigh, Royce hooked all the bags over one arm, then unbuckled Doc and pulled him into his arms.
He continued to ramble as he walked the omega through his condo, unnecessarily telling him what each room and piece of furniture was. He felt like a dolt.
“And this can be your room.” As he set the duffle bags down, Doc kicked and rolled out of his arms. Royce held his hands up.
“Okay, you want to be left alone?” Doc didn’t answer. Instead, he scrambled onto the bed in the corner, curled into a ball, his hands clamped over his neck. “Ummm, I guess I’ll go make dinner?”
The omega glowered at him.
“He is not basking in our alpha glory.” His wolf was incensed. “Why is he not basking? You must slaughter his enemies, then he will bask!”
Royce disregarded his wolf and took a small step backward. He exited the spare bedroom and went to the kitchen. Not knowing what else to do, he grilled two steaks and put potatoes in the microwave. Twenty minutes later, he left his dinner downstairs and took a plate up to Doc with a soda and glass of water. He didn’t have a tray, so he used a baking sheet to carry everything at once.
To his dismay, the omega hadn’t changed positions. Royce set the baking sheet down and stared, debating if he should try and talk to the omega.
“You can cut the pretenses,” Dr. Abbott said at last. “Just get it over with and rape me, force a mate bond, that’s clearly why you kidnapped me.”
Royce’s stomach fell to his feet, his skin ice cold.
“Is that—why—That’s not what mates are supposed to do!” Royce spluttered. “Mate bonds are sacred and should be treated with respect, as should the omegas.”
“You’ve clearly lived a sheltered life.”
The omega narrowed his eyes at Royce but stayed curled up on his bed.
Leaving the room without another word, Royce went straight to his en suite and threw up.
His parents had been fated mates. Their example of love, patience, and devotion had lived front and center in his mind through everything that he’d been through. That beacon of hope and love, the promise that something good still existed in this world, is what pulled him through his darkest days. Even after he’d given up hope of finding his own mate.
To see an omega, his omega, utterly terrified of him, of their bond. To hear him disparage fated mates by suggesting Royce wanted to—he couldn’t force himself to even think it.
His stomach clenched and rolled again.
Chapter nine
Theodore
Not even a week in town and he’d been kidnapped by an alpha claiming to be his fated mate. That must be some sort of record.
How had this happened?
Was he cursed with terrible luck?
Rethinking the events of his life, Theodore thought that must be it.
He glared from the still door to the plate of food the alpha had brought him. Steak and potato, slathered in dairy. Figures. It was okay; he didn’t have an appetite anyway.
Popping a peppermint in his mouth and clanking it, he glared at the door. When the alpha didn’t burst through it after an hour, he got up from the bed. Tiptoeing to the window, he looked out. No trees were close enough to the window for him to leap to, and the condo was on a hill; the back end of the basement was exposed, meaning it was a three-story drop from his room—cell was a more accurate word.
He sat in a huff. What the heck was this alpha’s problem? Theodore had been taking his juiced-up suppressor on top of the alpha birth control—that wolf shouldn’t have been able to smell anything on him. Let alone enough to scent him as his mate. Ugh, a mate. This was the last thing Theodore needed right now.
He idly replayed the events in his mind. It must have been when he’d started to cry. The violent influx of pheromones and fear must have been too strong for the meds. That and every few months Theodore needed to increase his dose of each medicine. After all, it wasn’t meant to be a permanent solution for daily use.
He winced, hands flying to his stomach. He curled into a ball and panted. A sharp stabbing pain shot through his abdomen. It wasn’t a hunger pain, it was worse, and this was the second time it had happened today. The first one was in the middle of a spay, and he’d almost dropped to the floor for the overwhelming onslaught.
Falling to his side, he scooched until his back was against the wall. He did his best to breathe through it instead of yelling. His forehead broke out in a cold sweat, and his ears rang. At long last it subsided, and the room was cast into silence. Well, almost silent.
Someone walked down the hallway. That was the first time Theodore had heard the alpha since he’d vomited before going back downstairs. Serves you right, Theodore thought bitterly.
